Counting Stars
by goddess-chan123
Summary: A major 'what if' story. Kingdom Hearts isn't real, just an idea, there aren't multiple worlds and there's no video game that stars Sora, well, at least not yet.


**Summary: ****A major 'what if' story. Kingdom Hearts isn't real, just an idea, there aren't multiple worlds and there's no video game that stars Sora, well, at least not **_**yet.**_

**Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own!**

**AN: Should I change the a/b characters? If so, who should it be?**

**WARNING THERE WILL BE CONSTANT POV JUMPING THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE STORY! BEWARE!**

_**Counting Stars**_

**Chapter 1**

**The Week Every Thing Changed**

_**MONDAY**_**:**

So it's the middle of the school year, early morning, cloudy.

Enter the Chiba house hold, expecting the usual- loud noises, screaming and yelling, and utter chaos. They're the neighborhood's alarm clock, but without the luxury of a snooze button.

And this Monday morning is no exception.

So now let me begin.

-xXx-

Standing in the kitchen with cupboards wide open and a confused look on his face, yep, that's our early morning Ven.

"So what's up this time, Ven?" I asked.

"The peanut butter is gone." He stated flatly.

"So?"

"Sora asked for a peanut and banana sandwich for today's lunch. We've got bananas, bread, and actual butter but no _peanut_ butter." Ven turned to me with a helpless look on his face. "What am I suppose to do, Van!"

"I don't know, check the fridge?"

"Why on earth would it be in the fridge?"

I ignored Vens' quizzical look and walked passed him to Xion. Xion was in her little play pen next to the window in the family area of the house, still in her pajama's. She had this 'unhappy' look and reached out to me when she saw I was coming.

"Hey, Xion!" I smiled as I picked her up.

"Hi, Vi-Van." She said cutely. She couldn't say my name- or any of our names properly, so I was stuck with a nickname that a two year old gave. Thank god none of my friends ever come over. "Vinny, put me here and no Cupcake." She pouted, clearly upset; I patted her soft red hair and held her close so she wouldn't fall.

She likes to fidget.

Cupcake is Xion's bunny rabbit plush thing. She loved that thing, and never went anywhere without it.

_EVER._

"Oh, _Vinny_, how could you?" I teased, turning back to my younger brother.

"Shut up, she didn't want Cupcake when I went to get her. It's her fault." He pointed at Xion with an accusing finger. Xion understood what his finger-pointing meant and blew a raspberry at him.

"Fiber…" She mumbled with an adorable pout.

_Vinny_ pouted back.

I smirked.

"You're blaming a two year old? That's low, even for your height." I started teasing him before he got any chance to say something back.

"I am _not_ short! Stop being a jerk, or I'll tell mom!" he complained, he's _such_ a momma's boy.

"Whatever," suddenly losing interest in this conversation, "you find the peanut butter?" I asked we really needed our old topic back. Roxas would bitch if Sora didn't get what he wanted, because Sora rarely asked for something for himself.

"Yes," he emphasized by wiggling the plastic jar in front of my face.

"And…?" I fished.

"_And _what?" he glared at me, he was blushing, that meant there was something he didn't want to tell me.

Too bad _Vinny_.

"Where'd you find it," officially re-amused.

"It was…" he hesitated; his neck was starting to turn red, god this kid blushes too easily.

"_It was in the fridge_." He finally squeaked out.

"Ewwie," Xion she crinkled her nose as if she were disgusted and buried her face into my shirt.

I couldn't help but laugh, "Come on, Xion, let's get you all dressed up."

"_NO_!" She whined, "Don't wanna!"

"To bad, kiddo." I said, tossing her over my shoulder, making her giggle. I walked back through the kitchen and headed through the hallway and up the stairs.

"Don't forget to wake up the twins!" Ven called to me.

"I know, stop harassing me!"

Upstairs in Xion's room she decided on a frilly little pink shirt and overall's with white flowers stitched into them. I was currently trying to help her put on shoes, it's not as easy as it sounds. Now that she had Cupcake she keeps kicking her feet all over the place and wiggling and giggling.

"Xion, stop kicking your feet." My third try at asking _nicely _to get her to stop, she was really starting to piss me off.

"No!" She hugged her stuffed rabbit-thing tightly and stopped moving. I felt my eye twitch, that's so typical of her.

I got her socks on and one shoe and then I heard muffled shuts and thumping, _great the twins are up early_. My eye twitched again, I'm pretty sure that my siblings are starting to be hazardous to my health.

I take a deep breath and put on Xion's other shoe and put her on the floor, I knew she wouldn't go anywhere. She's two, not stupid.

"I'll be right back, Xion." I told her, and left the room. I made sure to leave the door open a crack, if I didn't she'd cry.

I walked two doors down the hall and made my way to the twin's room.

"No, Roxas, mommy bought those for me!" I heard Sora shout through the door, I didn't bother knocking they wouldn't have heard it anyways. They never do.

"No, they're mine; momma got you the striped-y ones!" Roxas yelled back, when I opened the door I stood there in amusement.

Roxas was fending off an attacking- a term I use lightly- Sora, and the object of their desires that made these two fight like this- are you ready for this? - …Socks.

You heard me right, _SOCKS_.

Most people wouldn't understand why these close-knit set of twins would fight over anything, let alone over a pair of socks. So I have the privilege to find this ridiculously amusing.

But also a tad bit sad.

But to explain why they were fighting, first off they're _five_ and that should be reason enough, but also our mom bought them those socks on her day off. She took the twins shopping for school stuff and because this is their first year at school she wanted to make sure they liked what she got.

So they really cherished those socks.

"Van!" Sora cried, and ran over to me to hug my legs. "Roxy won't give me my socks." He looked up to me with those big blue eyes of his, they started to tear up and he looked so damn cute that it was killing me.

"They aren't yours!" Roxas stamped his foot on the floor.

"But they're _blue_," Sora said as if that explained everything.

"Oh god, why me?" I looked to the ceiling as I cursed silently in my head; I felt something else on my legs other than Sora. When I looked down to see what it was I found Roxas clinging to my other leg.

"Don't take momma's socks away from me." Roxas mumbled just loud enough for me to hear, making an equally cute puppy-pout.

_This_ is why the twins shouldn't wake up early. They were fucking _evil_.

"_No_," Sora cried again, "The green one's are Roxy's the blue one's are _mine_!"

Now everything made sense!

"If you two don't let go off me, I'm gonna fall over. And I'll land on you on purpose." I gave them a half-ass glare, it was just enough to look scary and make them give my legs the freedom they needed and deserved.

"Roxas, Sora's right." I told him. Those two little words were something thing no older brother wanted to hear. Knowing they're wrong and the younger sibling got it right, this is how sibling rivalry is born.

And Sora's cheeky-ass smile wasn't helping.

"But, they're _mine_!" Roxas pouted.

"The blue ones are Sora's, the green one's are yours. Mom bought both pairs so shouldn't you like the green one's more?" I explained. Green was his favorite color.

"_VEN_!" Roxas screamed when he realized that things weren't going his way.

Thanks Roxas, we needed our neighbors to call the cops on us this morning too.

-xXx-

After about an hour later we were finally off to school and daycare.

I was currently holding a sleeping Xion and Cupcake, Ven was taking care of the Twins- one in each hand.

If anyone's wondering, the twins resolved their issue they each had one of the socks that they were fighting over. Roxas had: left blue, right green and Sora had: left green and right blue. Ven could actually use his brain in the morning.

"See ya' at school, Van." Ven called to me while turning a corner, I gave him a nod his way and a simple 'see ya' for acknowledgement in return.

Along with making lunch, taking Sora and Roxas to their elementary was one of Ventus's chores. The elementary may have been further from our high school, but he almost always got there before me.

I had to take Xion to her daycare, which always took awhile because she had to be signed in and settled then I could go to school- not that I really wanted to.

Afterwards, when I got home (with Xion and the twins, Ven always has clubs or whatever) I do laundry and start dinner. Those are my chores, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have Struggle practice until eight so Ven picks them up and orders out (he can't cook_ real_ food).

-xXx-

Fuck my life. Just fuck it.

I totally regret not watching the morning news, right now.

Though usually I didn't have to, mom always did that for us. She would've written it on her notepad that we used to communicate to tell us if there was going to be rain. But since all her note said was '_take out the trash_' and '_have a nice day_', none of us thought twice about the cloudy grey sky.

Should've though.

Now, its nine forty, I was in school just a little over two hours only to have my cell phone ring in the middle of class. Xion's daycare had lost its power and I had to leave school and pick her up again.

I was pissed.

Not that my day was going any better before this, so far my day had only been ruined do to unfinished homework and a test I totally bombed because I didn't study for it. But no one can blame me; there was a _Final Fantasy_ marathon on last night, same as tonight and the rest of the week, from three to ten.

I didn't even notice the rain at first, apparently it had started during second and it was about ten minutes into my third period when there was this bright flash of light then this giant clap of thunder.

It caused the windows to vibrate and made the lights flicker. It caused the few students who were sleeping or completely not paying attention to jump or fall out of their chair. I heard kids from other class rooms scream childishly, just to distract their teacher from the work I bet.

But now, because of that same thunder I have to go get Xion, in the rain.

With no umbrella.

And I just can't leave her at home and then come back, no, I have miss school and lose points. But I still managed to find Ven and ask him to get my class and home work from my other periods.

Dragging a two-year-old home, when she doesn't want to, isn't fun,_ especially_ in the rain. And if anyone _ever_ tells you otherwise, stab them in the eye, they fully deserve it.

_Fuck_, I forgot to ask Ven to pick up the twins for me…

0o0o0o0o0

Vanitas is an idiot, a pure-bred idiot. He's lucky I actually bothered to get his lousy homework.

-xXx-

_To: Ventus_

_From: Van_

_Hey, sorry it's so late, but can you pick up the twins? Xion's napping._

_To: Vanitas_

_From: Ven_

_You know I have rehearsal! I'll never get a speaking part if they think I'm a flake!_

_To: Ventus_

_From: Van_

_Waah waah, you know damn well freshmen don't even make stage!_

_To: Ventus_

_From: Van_

_And what's more important? Your stupid club or our 5yr old brothers!_

_To: Vanitas_

_From: Ven_

_Shut up! I'm not cruel, but I'll kill you if I'm stuck as a stage hand._

_To: Ventus_

_From: Van_

_Love you too!_

-xXx-

There's one upside to picking up the twins, I get to leave school early.

But I didn't realize in what a sour mood I was in until I caught sight of the twins. Their smiling faces and all their energy just slapped the stress out of me. It was the only way I could possibly keep up, _smile_.

It's amazing actually.

"-and then it started raining so we had to play inside."

"We got to play baseball and it was _so_ cool, Roxas smacked it all the way to the bleachers!"

"Yeah, 'cause of that we got _two_ points!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "Sounds like you had a good day."

"The greatest!"

-xXx-

The rest of the day went rather smoothly, somewhat annoying, but smooth.

Xion didn't feel like eating, and we had to but her to bed earlier than normal because she didn't feel well. I'm a little worried that she might be catching a cold; she felt a little warm when I tucked her in.

Roxas didn't want to take his bath, claiming that all the 'good luck' from today would wash off. And of course Sora wouldn't either, not if _the amazing Roxas_ wouldn't, but that's mostly because Vanitas told him that the bath tub 'liked to eat naughty boys when they were all alone'.

Jerk.

But at least it was his job to get them in there, not mine. And I refused to help him out.

But that was an hour ago, right now Vanitas was sprawled out on the couch with Sora and Roxas asleep on top of him, watching _Final Fantasy_.

It was an old episode, I didn't know exactly which, but considering the season opening it didn't have Uncle Cloud in it.

I couldn't be bothered with reruns, I had homework.


End file.
